Time manipulation is important in Cloud Nine and Top Girls, two comedies by Caryl Churchill. In one, she manipulates the passage of time to make a connection between the oppression of women and the oppression of those living in the British colonies. In the other, he puts the present first and the past last, suggesting that the past is more important than Britain would like to admit. Like Patrick Wright, he is questioning the idea of ​​a national identity or heritage that wants to continue class and racial discrimination but give it a different name. History for Churchill is very important for developing the future not only of his characters, but of Great Britain in general. Churchill questions the need for a story, but instead pushes forward Wright's idea of ​​a “heterogeneous society” in which each individual can define their own story. Churchill shows the ugliness of colonial Africa, racism, classism, sexism and homophobia, while also showing that these characters who represent “the other” have stories that are as important to Britain as those who are the so-called “guardians”. ”.Caryl Churchill brings together past and present in Cloud 9 with a first act focused on the colonial past and a second act focused on how the modern family is equally dysfunctional. In the first act, Churchill focuses on colonial Africa and how race and gender were addressed. With Clive's character we get Britain who is unable to see diversity and believes he is helping the colonies by being a father the way Clive treats Joshua. However, by having Joshua point a gun at Clive at the end, we see Churchill's introduction of the opposing point of view and how the colonies actually viewed the English... middle of paper... still in a profession patriarchal. Marlene could take a job from a man, but she still had to deny aspects of being a woman such as motherhood. Much is made of the last scene of the play when Angie declares that the whole thing is "scary." It seems that the idea of ​​Marlene completely denying her past to climb the ladder of her future was just as scary as Britain ignoring its past for the "aura" of a national heritage that ignores the ugliness of imperialism and of sexism. Works Cited Churchill, Caryl. Cloud 9. (New York: Routledge, 1980) Churchill, Caryl. Top Girls (London: Methuen, 1991) Godiwala, Dimple. Breaking Boundaries: British Feminist Playwrights Writing in the Mainstream Since 1980. (New York: Peter Lang, 2003) Wright, Patrick. Living in an Old Country: The National Past in Contemporary Britain (London: Verso, 1985.